Senza l’astuccio, perderei tutte le penne in borsa.

Without the pencil case, I would lose all the pens in my bag.

Breakdown of Senza l’astuccio, perderei tutte le penne in borsa.

• la penna: the pen
• in: in
• la borsa: the bag
• senza: without

Questions & Answers about Senza l’astuccio, perderei tutte le penne in borsa.

Why is there a definite article in senza l’astuccio? I thought senza didn’t take an article.

The preposition senza can appear with or without an article.

• You drop the article when talking about something in general (e.g. senza zucchero = “without sugar”).
• You keep it when you refer to a specific or known item. Here you mean that pencil-case you own, so you say senza l’astuccio (“without the pencil case”).

Why is l’astuccio written with l’ instead of lo or il?

In Italian the singular masculine article il contracts to l’ before nouns starting with a vowel.

• il astuccio → l’astuccio
  You would use lo only before certain consonant clusters (e.g. lo zio, lo gnomo).

What does astuccio mean, and what gender is it in Italian?

Astuccio means “pencil case” (or “case,” “box” in general). It is a masculine singular noun:

• singular: l’astuccio
• plural: gli astucci

What tense and mood is perderei, and why is it used here instead of the future tense ?